


The Truth About Dogs and Love

by dxndelixns



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Cute, Dog Sitter Do Kyungsoo | D.O., Dogs, First Meetings, Fluff, KaiSoo - Freeform, M/M, Romance, dog sitting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 04:35:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17196626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dxndelixns/pseuds/dxndelixns
Summary: Jongin hates cleaning his house, but knows it must be done. It's always a struggle with three dogs running around, so he hires someone to watch them for the day. He doesn't expect to fall head over heels for the grumpy, bespectacled dogsitter named kyungsoo.





	The Truth About Dogs and Love

When he says he doesn’t know what happened to his flat after just a day, Jongin is not kidding.

As soon as he steps in the hallway to his flat, he could already hear the muffled, yet really loud, barking of his dogs. Embarrassment over the noise that his neighbors are enduring at that moment forces him to walk faster so that he could be greeted by all three dogs, all looking excited to meet him. Their tails are all wagging happily and before Jongin could even properly close the door behind him, all three are already jumping at him, waiting for their treat which he promptly gives (after much exhaustion, as all the dogs clamor up and hug his leg in the process). That is only the start of a nightly, almost ritual that he has to endure just to keep the house clean. And he hates cleaning, for one. 

He changes clothes and starts heralding the dogs to the bedroom room, where he tries (and almost always is unsuccessful at the first try) to make them stay there as he works on cleaning the living room and the kitchen. Tonight is no exception; the youngest of the three, Jjangah, slips between his legs just as he was about to close the door, making him chase for the toy poodle for a solid minute before catching her, finally, and making her play with the other dogs. Closing the door, he takes out the broom and starts sweeping all over, making sure that no corner is not swept clean. Their toys also need to be arranged into one neat pile. That alone takes him ten to fifteen minutes, and then the room adjacent to his bedroom needs sweeping too (thank goodness he trained all his dogs to pee and poop in the bathroom or, at the very least, at the rug near the bathroom). After that is done, he moves on to mop the entirety of the house, leaving the bedroom the last place. He lets the dogs out, who are by then a little irritable, and lets them loose on the newly moped floor so he could sweep, vacuum and mop the whole room. He has to take out the rugs, too, and soak them in water with detergent, to be washed on the weekend. He also has to walk the dogs around for a few minutes before giving them dinner. All of these takes at least forty-five minutes to an hour, and that could extend depending on the behavior of the dogs that day. 

Jongin’s been doing this for months and for some reason the cleaning just doesn’t get any better for him, somehow. He still isn’t accustomed to nightly sweeping, or moping, or taking out the dogs — all three of them — for a walk around the block. Sometimes he forgets one or the other, and sometimes he just doesn’t make it a point to do anything at all, instead preferring to treat himself with some take-out while the three surround him, sitting or yawning or, in the eldest dog, Monggu’s case, just outright sleeping. Tonight, as he eats his dinner, the dogs all around him, he has half the mind to call his sister who has been offering to give him the number of the dog-sitter that frequents her café. The thing is, he doesn’t really want to hire anyone: he chose to have three dogs under his stead, and he feels that it is also his, and only his, responsibility to take care of them. Practicality and rationality calls, however, and so he decides the next day that he would call his sister and ask for the dog-sitter’s number.

“Hey, Jongin. Glad you called.” The tanned guy’s sister greets as Jongin balances over having his second puppy, Jjangu, on his lap, Jjangah, the youngest, resting her head on his thigh, and Monggu near his feet, and his legs feeling very, very numb.

“Hey, _noona._ ” Jongin cannot hide his exasperation, which earns him a chuckle from his older sister. “How’s the café?”

“We’re good here. How about you? Are you eating well?” His sister cannot hide her worry; it’s been some months since they’ve seen each other, with Jongin’s work eating up most of his time away from his family. They only ever get to speak once in a while, more so meet, so her worry sums up the worry of his whole family.

“I’m good, noona. Don’t worry too much.” Jongin says as he wiggles his toes to keep them from losing feeling. “I do have something to ask you, though.”

His sister chuckles over the phone. He could hear the whirring of machines on the background, the café bustling with sound. For a moment he smiles, because it was always his sister’s dream to have a café of her own and that was the one thing that he helped her build, and he was proud of what his sister has achieved. “I — do you still have the number of the dog-sitter you mentioned last time?” He asks.

“Sure, yeah I have it here.” He could hear rummaging, and then his sister says, “Got it!”

“Could you send it to me?”

“Of course, little brother, or you could just talk to him now. He’s here, so.” His sister covers the microphone but he could still hear her calling out, “Kyungsoo! My brother wants to speak to you.”

Jongin could just make out a “Finally” in an exasperated way, when out of the blue a clear voice speaks out. “Hello?”

“H-hi.” Jongin stammers, then clears his throat. “Hey, uh, I’m Jongin. I heard from my sister that you dog-sit?”

“Yes, and I heard from you sister that you have three dogs and no proper dog-sitter. Is that right?” Kyungsoo says, his voice sounding stern. Immediately Jongin has doubts regarding this Kyungsoo: he sounded strict and unimpressed. But Jongin needed him. So he steeled himself and answered.

“You got that right. I was hoping you could come over now? Let my dogs meet you.” Jongin made a pact to himself: if they bark at him out of fear or anger, he wouldn’t hire the guy no matter how nosy his sister could get. His dogs are most important to him right now.

“I’ll just ask your sister for your address, would that be fine?” Said the guy on the other line.

“Sure, sure. I’ll be waiting. Ask my sister for my phone number too, so you could text me.”

“Got it. See you.”

He talked to his sister for a few more minutes after that, but heard a door open and close on the other line. “He’s going. Hey Jongin, thanks for hiring him. His name is Kyungsoo, by the way, and he’s older than you by a year. He’s really sweet and caring. He part-times here too on Wednesdays and Fridays, but if you need him then it’s alright.”

“Thanks, noona. I have to go— the dogs are numbing my feet.” With a laugh, his sister told him to stay healthy then promptly cut the line off before Jongin could say anything back.

By the time that he wasn’t feeling pins and needles on his foot because of numbness, the dogs are fast asleep again on the floor surrounding him. He sighs and climbs up to the sofa, where immediately he is overcome by sleepiness.

Jongin wakes up to the dogs barking at him, and he immediately remembers that he did tell Kyungsoo to come over. Looking at his phone, he curses quietly as he has missed calls and messages all from the guy. He looks through the peephole and sees round eyes staring straight on the peephole, Kyungsoo biting his lower lip so that it looks like he has a straight, tight line for a mouth. Suddenly Jongin doesn’t feel good about this guy, but he takes one look at the three dogs looking back at him with their wagging tails and he doesn’t hesitate to open the door immediately. 

“Hi!” He says, trying (and failing) to smile with sincerity. The guy, meanwhile, keeps glaring as he introduces himself.

“Hey, I’m Kyung– is that them?” Kyungsoo immediately asks. The dogs slowly come to Jongin’s back, wary of the new guest. They peek behind their master’s leg, their eyes questioning. Immediately, Kyungsoo squats, but his eyes still squint. Heart shaped lips immediately stretch to a smile as he brings out treats– the same treats that Jongin buys– and immediately offers it to the dogs. The three slowly approach Kyungsoo and sniff him once, twice, then immediately their tails wag in excitement and they almost pounce on the guy as he parts the treat almost equally between the three. 

“They’re…really…wow, they’re energetic— have they had their walk?” Kyungsoo asks while patting Jjangu who was playing with his hand. Jjangah was climbing on his lap, and Monggu was sniffing Kyungsoo. Jongin shakes his head, never speaking in amazement; he has never seen the dogs as comfortable as this with another person. Even with Chanyeol, his friend, who comes over, the dogs are just perpetually sniffing him or, in the best case scenario, letting him pat them for a few seconds before running back behind Jongin.

But this, this is different. Jongin feels that the dogs felt immediate connection with this guy. He silently thanks his sister and all of the gods that he knows for bringing this guy to help his problem. He only realizes that Kyungsoo was talking to him when he feels all three dogs watching his face, as well as Kyungsoo tilting his head.

“Jongin-ssi? Hello? I was asking where their leashes were?” Kyungsoo asks. The three dogs run up to Jongin and start pawing as his feet, as if to say _“our friend here is talking to you, we want to go out! Give him the leashes!”_ So Jongin runs inside and gives Kyungsoo their leashes and in less than five minutes, he has all dogs strapped in. He leaves his bag with Jongin, saying “Please take care of my bag, I’ll just walk them. Be back in ten” before dashing out with the dogs in tow. He could hear their happy barks as they descend to the ground level, and Jongin smiles because finally, _finally_ , he could have the pad for himself for at least ten minutes. That’s more time he has to fix the pad than in any other day, so he makes use of it by quickly fixing the living room to make it more presentable, and then lying there. And sleeping. Again.

He is again awoken by the sounds of his dogs barking, this time from the outside. Quick steps, and he opens the door to a sweaty Kyungsoo and three happy, panting dogs. Immediately the dog-sitter expertly opens the leashes and lets the dogs in, where they immediately drink water, and, what do you know, slowly but surely goes to sleep.

“I… wow, okay.” Jongin could only say. He watches the three, then looks over to where Kyungsoo is and sees them just standing there, watching the dogs sleep. The small boy is still breathing heavily, though. 

“Sorry, they’re rarely that energetic with other people.” Jongin starts as a way of conversation. “Do sit down, I’ll get you some water.”

“Water would be awesome.” Kyungsoo responded, his hands still together really respectfully. He sits down and takes out a handkerchief from his pockets, dabbing it on his face gently. Jongin watches this and thinks, Oh wow, it’s been so long since I’ve seen someone actually bring handkerchiefs with them. The taller man sits and was about to place the glass of cold water on the bare wood table without any coasters when Kyungsoo immediately takes the glass and smiles rather painfully.

“T-Thanks, let me get that.” He says, then drinks the entirety of the glass, not putting it down on the table as Jongin asks him questions.

“So, uh. I really appreciate you coming here and helping me, and I would love it if you could come by every other day. I really don’t expect you to come by everyday—”

“What time am I supposed to be here?” Kyungsoo asks matter of factly.

Jongin doesn’t want to ask, but he does anyway. “Do you have… classes?” In his defense, the guy looks young, like he could be in college and this is only his part-time jobs (along with other part-time jobs he could have).

“I—” Kyungsoo suddenly laughs, and Jongin thinks to himself, Oh.

_Oh. He looks pretty cute._

The smaller of the two gathers himself quickly, to the slight disappointment of Jongin. “Sorry— I think I’m actually a year older than you based from what your sister told me—.” He says, wiping the bottom and sides of the glass before putting it down on the table. He never got to finish his sentence, though, because Jongin’s curiosity got the better of him.

“You’re _what_?” Jongin exclaims. 

“A year older than you?” Kyungsoo repeats, and Jongin blinks rapidly to process this information. This guy is older than him? But…he’s cute, and small. And possibly glaring at him again. 

“Sorry, I just thought you were younger than me, _hyung._ ” He tries the honorific and thinks, nope. 

He was about to say something else when someone knocks on the door and, without waiting for Jongin to even lift his butt from the sofa, opens it, revealing a tall man whose ears are rather prominent because of the hat he’s wearing. Bundled up, he stares for a moment at Kyungsoo before recognition hits him.

“Is that you, Do Kyungsoo?” Park Chanyeol exclaim in his loud and booming voice.

“Oh, good Lord. He’s your friend?” Kyungsoo says to Jongin, pointing to Chanyeol. A nod was all that Jongin could do again in amazement, especially when Chanyeol easily picks up Kyungsoo and gives him a spin, much to the ire (and laughter) of Kyungsoo.

“You didn’t tell me you know each other!” Chanyeol says, closing the door behind him and startling the sleeping dogs who, awakened by the commotion, peeks out and stays close to Kyungsoo and Jongin. “Oh—hi there babies.” He tries to pet one, but Kyungsoo swats his hand away. 

“They’re tired. Let them rest.” The three pups close their eyes and immediately go to sleep, while the three men speak quietly throughout. Chanyeol sits on the armrest by Kyungsoo’s chair and they both look at a still shocked but slowly recovering Jongin. 

“Uh, yeah, I just met him today, actually.” Jongin hesitates to say it, but Kyungsoo does anyway.

“I’m dog-sitting these three angels.” Kyungsoo says with a fond look at the dogs.

“I didn’t know you dog-sit. Could you also dog-sit Toben?” Chanyeol offers, looking mischievously at Kyungsoo.

“Not gonna happen. I only dog-sit those whose owners have no actual time in their hands.” He sneaks a glance at Jongin, who looks down at his feet. “Not that that’s bad, I’m just here to help them. You, on the other hand, have so much time on your hands.”

“Shut up Kyungsoo, I also don’t have time. How’s the master’s degree going?” Chanyeol asks, to the amazement of Jongin.

“Uh, you’re taking up a master’s degree?” Jongin interjects, and Kyungsoo nods.

“Yep. I’m working on my thesis, though, so to kill time, I dog-sit. And I’m graduating this year.” 

“He’s pretty amazing, our Kyungsoo.” Chanyeol places a hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder and nods in appreciation. 

“Wait, but you’re older than me—” Jongin says, confused.

“Yeah, by a year in age. Got into college a bit early, that’s why.” Kyungsoo says, clearly not used to the attention being given to him, as his hands immediately go to his ears, which he pulls gently. “I should probably get going…”

“Oh, okay.” Jongin flatly says, disappointment barely masked. “If you can get here tomorrow by nine am, that would be awesome. Or earlier, so that I could show you were things are kept.”

“Nine am it is. Nice to meet you, Jongin-ssi.” Kyungsoo offers his hand for a handshake, and Jongin gladly does so. They lock eyes for a moment and Jongin could see mirth in his eyes, a spark of happiness for the day that he had spent with the dogs. Chanyeol waves goodbye as Kyungsoo goes down, then Jongin interrogates Chanyeol about Kyungsoo all night that by the end of it Chanyeol was so sure Jongin was interested with the dog-sitter he even gave tips on how to impress Do Kyungsoo.

\---------

_“He wasn’t glaring,” Chanyeol says, “he just didn’t have his glasses on yesterday.”_

That’s what Jongin remembers from his talk with Chanyeol. The thing is, he’s a little bit scared of Kyungsoo. Not because he’s glaring, but because he just feels scary. That’s not to say that he isn’t interested with Kyungsoo (because that first impression, with him and the dogs, gave Jongin promise) but Jongin was intimidated with Kyungsoo.

Part of that was the fact that he also noticed Kyungsoo not letting the cold glass sit on a wooden table without a coaster.

He’s so scared and intimidated of the other guy that at seven am, he startles all his dogs into waking up that early on a work day (usually he wakes up at eight thirty), feeling jittery and wanting to impress Kyungsoo, although he thinks that cleaning out the house would be too much of a chore, so he lets it be. Jongin prepares some light breakfast and does not forget to make some for Kyungsoo too, as he feels that he would have a lot of work to do today. Nine am on the dot, Kyungsoo rings the doorbell, and enters the house to the dogs all excited to have him for the day.

“Here are all their leashes,” Jongin starts, pointing to a hanger with three long leashes, “and under this cabinet is where I store their treats and food.” He fake whispers. Kyungsoo smiles tightly and nods to all those, scanning the place and taking mental note that he should really clean this place up.

As Jongin finishes up the perfunctory talks, he glances upon a curious Kyungsoo looking at the refrigerator, as if he could see that it was lacking groceries inside. “I, uhm, I don’t have much going into the refrigerator, so I’ll just leave some money for you to order for yourself while I’m away.”

“Got it.” Kyungsoo responds, getting his focus back to Jongin. He smiles tightly once more, nodding, and Jongin takes this as a sign that he must really go to work. Waving goodbye to Kyungsoo, he walks out of his house and immediately realizes that it just looked so domestic, so homey and it felt nice. He smiles all the way to the bus stop with that thought in mind.

Kyungsoo, meanwhile, sighs and shakes his head the moment that Jongin walks out of the house. “I’m a dog-sitter but why do I feel like I’m taking care of an extra human?” He fixes his spectacles and mutters as he quickly clears of the dishes on the sink, and then cleans the entire kitchen. It’s not even noon, and the dog’s schedule, as pinned by Jongin in the refrigerator (that’s why he’s staring, so that he can see the schedule clearly), says that the dogs don’t go out before noon. 

Huh.

Let’s fix that.

So by nine thirty, he has all the dogs leashed and ready for a walk. He’ll deal with the house after they’ve had their morning walk, Kyungsoo reasons out to himself. There is a nearby park in front of Jongin’s house, just two blocks away, and that could be a good place to get the dog’s energy going and hopefully by the time that they go home again after an hour, they’ll be peaceful enough for Kyungsoo to get on with the other household chores he’s been meaning to do.

The time it takes for them to get to the park makes Kyungsoo contemplate upon having Jongin as his boss. Jongin is hella attractive, Kyungsoo thinks, but he’s way out of my league. Jongin is handsome and tall; he almost looks like he should be a model and not an office worker. Never has Kyungsoo dated someone close to perfection, and he intends to keep it that way. He would rather the attention be directed to someone else and not to him. 

Monggu, perhaps sensing Kyungsoo’s insecurities rising to the surface, sticks close to him the whole time, which Jjangu and Jjangah follow suit. That puts Kyungsoo in a spot where he is noticeable because he has these cute dogs surrounding him, and even when he tells the three dogs to run and play inside the designated dog area, they stick to his side. Everyone seems to think that the dogs are cute and so people make an effort to talk to Kyungsoo, which both distracted him from the aforementioned thought but also annoyed him to no end. In the end, all four of them run laps across the park, and by the time that it was time for them to go back, Kyungsoo is all tired and sweaty. 

Seeing the apartment in disarray gave Kyungsoo energy, though, so he picks the first apron he sees (colored pink), the gloves beneath the kitchen sink (also pink), and gets to work. The dogs are peacefully watching him from the living room, their eyes slowly blinking, a sign of sleepiness. Their tails never stop wagging, though, until they fall asleep, probably thanking Kyungsoo for the morning run they’ve rarely had. 

He finishes by three pm, in which time his stomach rumbles repeatedly. That light breakfast that Kyungsoo ate that was Jongin’s doing was not at all enough. Realizing that Jongin doesn’t have groceries, he was about to go outside when all three dogs bark at him, their tails wagging: and so Kyungsoo and the three all go to the grocery, where Kyungsoo asks them to stay outside and wait until he’s finished.

\----------

The whole day Jongin feels an eerie sense of calm. It’s like he knows that by the end of it all,he’s going back to an apartment where his dogs have not left poop anywhere, have not peed on the floor or on any other surface, and where Kyungsoo is there waiting. For some reason the last thought cheers him up. This crush is so unprecedented, he thinks. 

But he welcomes it anyway. 

The bus stop is just a couple of blocks away from his home so he was very much surprised when he sees all three dogs bounding for him, their barks loud and happy and their leashes dragging on the floor. For a moment he wants to call Kyungsoo immediately, ask him what happened, when he sees a petite man racing towards them, the hood of his sweatshirt bouncing up and down, groceries on his hands. Coming nearer, he realizes that it was Kyungsoo and then:

Kyungsoo smiled, and Jongin suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.

This is stupid.

“A-ah, Jongin-ssi, I’m really sorry— they must’ve smelled you and ran. I should have tied them properly.” Kyungsoo said, looking at the ground. It crossed Jongin’s mind that he should probably be a bit angry, since he let the dogs slip, but he can’t bear to do just that so he simply said “It’s okay”, got the leashes, and the five of them walked home.

The walk felt like hours, but in reality it was only fifteen minutes. Jongin learned a lot about Kyungsoo that day, about how he did have dogs back in their house in the province, but moving to Seoul made him miss them so much. Dog-sitting has been a job that he’s been interested about, so he went and got a course on training dogs to help him better dog-sit people’s pups. 

“I don’t expect this to be a career, nobody else does, but it’s just relaxing. Plus, you meet different kinds of people you don’t expect to meet when you’re dog-sitting.” Kyungsoo says.

“Like who?” Jongin asks, the three dogs leisurely in front of him. Kyungsoo shifts the bags of groceries on his other hand and chuckles, but before he could answer, Jongin notices this.

“Would you like to trade?” He offers the leashes of the three dogs in exchange for the groceries, to which Kyungsoo immediately acquiesced. They both smiled as they traded, and as Kyungsoo’s hand gently brushed against Jongin’s as he handed out the groceries, Jongin’s heart skipped another beat.

This is really stupid.

“Just to answer your question, I didn’t expect to meet a like you. I didn’t expect you to be so…nice. Or that you just graduated. Or that you’re with three dogs. How did you end up with three dogs anyway, Jongin-ssi?” Kyungsoo says, and that makes Jongin smile shyly. 

“Monggu has been with me since I moved in the apartment, and Jjangu came a year later. Jjangah… Jjangah’’s a bit special just because she was given to me as a gift by my friend before he moved away.” He smiles rather painfully, which prompts Kyungsoo to ask: “Ex-boyfriend?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. She doesn’t remind me of him, though. She’s just… Jjangah.” Jongin shrugs. “Anyway, I love them three to death and I didn’t want to hire a dog sitter because I thought that because I committed to them, I should be the only one doing it. But… you’re a great help. And that’s just one and a half day of help you gave me there.”

Kyungsoo smiles at Jongin. “That’s usually what I hear. I’m glad that you didn’t let your ego get the best of you.”

“I hope you decide to do this for me every day.” Jongin suddenly says, without even thinking of it. Kyungsoo chuckles and nods without saying anything. 

“Don’t worry, I’d love to be with the dogs every day.” Kyungsoo replies, and Jongin does not shy from stopping and looking at Kyungsoo.

“Are you serious?” Jongin says. “Like really, are you serious?” That’s not at all what he expected. He expected a no from Kyungsoo, and he smiles when Kyungsoo smiles back. 

“Of course. I really enjoy being with them,” Kyungsoo nods to the dogs, and then looked back at Jongin who was still staring back at him. “And, I don’t know. Maybe you’ll be a pretty good person to talk to.”

The whole walk home, they talked about their lives and their pets and how they both had different first impressions of each other. 

“You know, I’ve never had— Oh. Oh. My. God. What. You did this?” Jongin suddenly said to Kyungsoo who was standing just outside, unleashing the dogs who ran inside and immediately waited for their treats. 

“Uhm, yeah. I did.” Kyungsoo nods, and looks at Jongin who was looking back at him in awe.

“You are an awesome person and I love you already.” Jongin suddenly blurted out without thinking, and Kyungsoo was taken aback.

“E-excuse me, Jongin-ssi?” 

“Please stop calling me Jongin-ssi. Please. Call me Jongin.” 

Kyungsoo nods slowly, and Jongin slowly tours the entirety of his now-clean home. He has never seen his couch that clean, or that table that organized, or his bed that devoid of clutter. 

“Thank you for this, Kyungsoo. Oh— your groceries.” Jongin remembers, giving Kyungsoo’s bags, but Kyungsoo shook his head.

“That’s yours. Can I— can I cook you something?” Kyungsoo asks, and Jongin doesn’t even hesitate to say yes because he knows, from Chanyeol’s story, that the other boy’s a pretty good cook.

And goddamn, can he cook. That soybean chicken stew was simply amazing. He had one too much bowl of rice and one too much bowl of this stew that he knew was the single best thing that has happened in his kitchen. Kyungsoo has his own bowl, but he was looking more at Jongin’s reaction rather than eating his food.

“Did you like it?” Kyungsoo asks. Jongin nods in agreement and continues eating.

“Kyungsoo, please. Stay with me here.” Jongin jokes, but Kyungsoo wasn’t smiling at it. He looked down at his hands, and then stands up.

“I guess I’ll go now, Jongin.” Kyungsoo curtly says.

“H-hey, Kyungsoo.” Jongin calls out just as Kyungsoo opens the door. 

“What is it?”

“See you tomorrow?” Jongin asks, a nervous feeling settling at the pit of his stomach.

“Sure.”

And Kyungsoo walks out of the pad, while Jongin watches as the smaller guy walks away from him.

\---------

The whole month, Kyungsoo and Jongin barely see each other. Jongin barely sees the guy which makes him hot meals at night, and the guy that makes his dogs very happy because they get sunlight at least twice a day, if not thrice. Kyungsoo would leave at four thirty, Jongin would come in by five, and by then everything was set– the dogs were quiet, the food was still hot (or sometimes an instruction would come in a form of a yellow post-it saying to heat it up), but overall there was minimal contact from the two of them.

Not that it translated to the social media sphere, though. They have been chatting continuously over the course of the month, getting to know and learn things about each other, but every time Jongin asks if he could meet Kyungsoo out on a shop or on a date (he said that directly, without any pretense, one day when he was so frustrated of Kyungsoo’s diversion of answers), Kyungsoo would always bow out for a variety of reasons. 

Jongin’s friends saw the change in their friend and his pad, too. The first time they saw it clean, they high-fived Jongin for keeping his place clean for once, and upon finding out that he hired a dog-sitter, exclaimed, “Can I hire him too?” And it wasn’t lost on them that Jongin has now looked healthier, a little more happier than before. 

But Jongin was worried about Kyungsoo, about how dodgy he is, so he decides to take a half day to just talk it out with the guy, see if they’re on the same page.

“Kyungsoo? You there?” Jongin says as he opens the door to his apartment. The three dogs all rush up to him, barking. Kyungsoo shouts from the bedroom, “I-is that you, Jongin?”

“Yeah, hi.” Jongin says, approaching the bedroom to find Kyungsoo in a pink apron, a pink gloves, with his grey hoodie and pants and spectacles all on his knees trying to find something beneath the bed. Suddenly Jongin feels at home. There and then, he knew.

“So sorry let me just—aha!” Kyungsoo exclaims as he gets the dust bunny, but then bumps his head on the side of the bed, letting a loud “Ow!” through.

“Hey are you fine?” Jongin suddenly rushes to his side, checking for injuries, while Kyungsoo sits there, slightly dumbfounded.

“I’m fine. Why are you home early?” Kyungsoo asks, and Jongin knew that it was a now or never situation.

“I just want to know— were you avoiding me? Since I told you to stay with me?” Jongin asks and he could see the hesitation in Kyungsoo’s eyes to answer.

Jongin realizes right there and then that oh, Kyungsoo just didn’t know how to respond. “I know that that was a joke.” Kyungsoo starts. “I know that you were joking, but I didn’t know what to say. I’m not good with compliments. I don’t know what I should say. I’m scared that I might not meet your expectations. I’m scared that you might find me uninteresting. I’m just your dog-sitter, after all.”

“Don’t say that. Also, you can start with a thank you.” Jongin says, smiling as he looked at his hands so close to Kyungsoo’s. 

“Thank you then, Jongin. For being a good person. For trusting me.” Kyungsoo says, watching where Jongin’s eyes were, landing on his hands, and letting them tap against the bedsheets.

“Please don’t be scared. Truthfully, I’ve really enjoyed talking to you.” Jongin starts. “I’ve enjoyed everything we’ve talked about so far, and I want to know you as you. As person Kyungsoo, not just chatting with you over some app. So if you will,” Jongin says, letting the courage move his hand to hold Kyungsoo’s, “can I get to know you? Can I ask you out on a date?”

The dogs all bark simultaneously, and they both laugh at their timing. As the three rush in the bedroom, seemingly knowing that they are missing this moment, Kyungsoo smiles as he wraps his hand around Jongin’s, intertwining their fingers.

“I guess that’s a yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Really fun incorporating some pet aspect in the story. 
> 
> I also know that it was not how Jongin got his dogs, so please don't be strict with that.


End file.
